These loaded potato stuffed peppers have cheese, butter, and bacon. They are great for side dish and appetizers! If you are looking for a fun Halloween side dish, you can make them look like monsters using this quick tutorial!

This year, we were lucky enough to be in Colorado for my mom’s annual Halloween dinner. This is one of my favorite family traditions, and it’s something I really miss when we aren’t here. Over the years, it has gone through different changes, but it’s always a fun event.

The menu always features bat wings (delicious chicken wings), witches brooms (breadsticks), witches teeth (corn), and jiggly brains (jello.) However, there always seems to be something new. This year, it was bloody fingers (bacon wrapped little smokies) and potato stuffed peppers, made to look like a monster!

The stuffed peppers were my contribution to the dinner, and they tasted delicious! They are pretty similar to stuffed peppers that have rice, but we thought it would be fun to switch it up a little bit and use potatoes instead!

Everyone has to call all the foods by their spooky names, which is always fun. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, just because it’s such a fun time to let loose and have a good time. This dinner is a great tradition that everyone looks forward to. A few years ago, my mom started setting up a trick-or-treat street, where all the grandchildren go around the house collecting treats from some of the adults who are hiding behind different doors. Jack, Benji, and Liam were the only ones that were able to attend this year, but they had a blast!

My mom pulls out the Halloween costume box, and everyone gets to come up with a costume. Jack decided to be Barney (the costume I wore for two or three years when I was younger), though, he eventually decided to do it without this creepy mask!

My dad, Forrest, Daniel, and Michael were in charge of handing out candy this year, and they had a blast coming up with ways to scare the kids. Jack and Benji really got a kick out of it!

Something I absolutely love about my parents is how important traditions were (and still are) growing up. I can’t imagine it was easy raising six children, but I think they’ve done a pretty darn good job. They’ve instilled in me a love for family. I look forward to holidays so much because it gives me a chance to create memories for us that will last a lifetime. Sure, it may take some extra effort, but I think it’s more than worth it. I can’t wait for many Halloween dinners to come (including the one for just our little family on actual Halloween where we’ll be having dinner in a pumpkin. Yum!)

Spooky Stuffed Peppers

Yield: 4

Ingredients

4 large green bell peppers

5 medium russet potatoes

1 cup cheddar cheese

1 small bag of bacon bits

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup milk, we used almond

salt and pepper

A couple slivers of onions

Water chesnuts

Olives

Toothpicks

Instructions

Boil potatoes until soft enough to mash.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (check temprature)

Cut the tops of of the green peppers, and remove the insides.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Place prepared green peppers in it, and then turn the heat down to medium. Keep peppers in pot for about five minutes.

In the mean time, mash potatoes with the milk, butter, cheese, bacon, salt, and pepper.

After removing green peppers from pot, place on a cookie sheet. Fill each to the top with the potato mixture. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the peppers just to brown. Serve right away.

*Assembly*

If you want to make them look like monsters, here's what we did:

Using toothpicks, make eyes with olives and water chestnuts.

Make mouth with a sliver of onion and secure into place with a toothpick.

MORE FROM CLARKSCONDENSED

About Katie

Katie Clark is a Colorado-native, a journalism graduate from Brigham Young University, and most importantly, a mother to the two cutest boys and wife to the most handsome man. She is a woman of many (random) talents, which include writing, cooking, sewing, technology, social media, and being a self-proclaimed Google expert. She loves spending time with her family, learning about parenting and pregnancy, and just enjoying life to the fullest.